UEFA confirm multi-city Euro 2020

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UEFA will stage the Euro 2020 tournament in a number of cities across the continent, the European governing body has decided.

The decision was taken by UEFA's executive committee at a meeting in Lausanne on Thursday.

It means there will be no one country hosting the tournament. The Football Association have already put forward Wembley to UEFA as a possible venue for the final. The announcement will also give hope to Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland hosting some Euro 2020 matches - they too have already expressed their interest to UEFA.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told a press conference after the meeting: "Some important decisions have been taken.

"UEFA Euro 2020 will be staged across the continent, in various major cities, following a decision taken today. A Euro for Europe follows an initial idea by UEFA president Michel Platini. The response has been extremely positive from all the national associations."

Turkey had initially bid to host Euro 2020 and the country's UEFA vice-president Senes Erzik opposed the decision, Infantino confirmed. The format and number of cities that will be involved in the tournament will be decided by UEFA's national teams committee.

Infantino said the bidding process for the host cities would start in March and would take a year with decisions made in the spring of 2014.

UEFA also decided that the 2013/14 European women's under-17 tournament will be hosted in England, while also revealing that third-party ownership of players will be banned in their competitions. The practice, widespread in Portuguese and Spanish football, sees individuals owning the 'economic rights' of a player and often securing a large percentage of transfer fees.

UEFA said: "The committee decided that the ownership of football players by third parties should be prohibited as a matter of principle. Consequently, FIFA will be requested to issue relevant worldwide regulations prohibiting third-party ownership of players.

"UEFA... would also be ready to implement a regulatory framework to prohibit third-party ownership arrangements in UEFA competitions, should FIFA not take the appropriate steps. In that case, a transitional period of three to four seasons would apply."